Spain beats France and I think almost everyone is pleased about that

Is Paris on fire yet? Is it perhaps better that the lost to minimize damages? I'm sure I don't have the full story when it comes to what goes on there and the media cannot really be trusted but that city seems to just be completely unhinged when it comes to sport celebration just like NYC is.

Anyway, let's talk about the game last night and how relieved I think almost everyone is that Spain emerged victorious in the rather dominant performance.

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While I am an outsider looking in when it comes to most things football, I, like many other Americans, take a great interest in it every two years or so. As far as the bookies are concerned, France was a favorite to win the entire World Cup before the first game was even played and up to this point they looked quite unstoppable. The only real trouble, surprisingly, that they had along the way was against Paraguay, who had just dispatched another team that was meant to go a long way in Germany.

The old saying is "nobody likes the French" and while I am sure that isn't entirely true, they do make it kind of easy to not like them with the attitude of some of their fans, their silly language that nobody speaks (joking), and mainly the fact that they always perform well at the World Cup. I think the last part is a major factor because in a lot of sports, unless you are a fan of that particular team, people don't like the same team winning too often. Now I know that France has only actually won the WC twice, but in most tournaments they do extremely well other than 2002 and 2010, where they didn't make it out of the group stages. They have been in 17 World Cups and it is just presumed that they are going to do well.

This year they were not heavily, but still favored to win the entire thing. They were also favored to defeat Spain last night. But if there is one thing that this tournament has been teaching me in regards to sport betting, the bookies are wrong as often as they are right this time around. While they were only favored by -.5 in the moneyline, you need to understand that a half goal margin is very common in football matches because you need to provide the betters with a clear chance to win and very few people are going to place a bet on an even number unless it is possible for the game to end in a draw. I hope that is clear.

Here are some interesting stats from the game though.

France and Spain held possession for nearly the exact same amount of time. France had many more corners than Spain, France had more shots on target than Spain, Spain conceded more fouls than France but managed to keep their cool (I guess) and only ended up with one yellow card and zero red.

The deciding factor was on the quality of the shots on goal though and when you look at the amount of saves on the part of the French goalkeeper, it tells a complete story. He had zero whereas the Spanish goalkeeper saved every single shot on target.

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I don't know anyone online or otherwise that is saddened by the departure of France from the tournament. I'm sure they exist somewhere though and congratulations on making it this far. You certainly had the world convinced that the title was yours before even making it to the final.

Now on the other hand, I know a ton of people that are fans of England and a handful that are fans of Argentina so tonight's game should be a bit more heated. I'd like to see England go on to win it but don't know if they really have the strength to pull that off. I hope it is exciting and I hope it is close, no matter what the end result is.